International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL)
Volume 3, Issue 11, November 2015, PP 20-25
ISSN 2347-3126 (Print) & ISSN 2347-3134 (Online)
www.arcjournals.org
‘An American Tragedy’: Analysis of Language and Writing
Techniques
Gentjana Taraj
Aleksandër Moisiu University
Department of Foreign Languages, Albania
[email protected]
Abstact: Dreiser is known among the other American writers for his objectivity in writing and a detailed
description of the reality which is related to his experience as a journalist. The present paper aims at analyzing
Dreiser’s writing style and techniques by studying his novel ‘An American Tragedy’ where the elements of his
style can be easily traced. The novel which is considered as his masterpiece is divided into three books. In the
first two books, the language is simple, direct, natural and unadorned showing the quality of Clyde’s life, while
the third book represents a transition to the inside world of the main character. Going through the text and
finding linguistic clues and examples of Dreiser’s style we conclude that by using such writing techniques as
symbolizing, free indirect discourse, contrast in colors etc, Dreiser has best revealed with great simplicity the
tensions, conflicting ideas that develop in the consciousness of Clyde and other characters. Although sometimes
he is considered a clumsy stylist, it is this lack of grace that has given his writing a particular power that stirs
reader’s emotions.
Keywords: naturalism, style, simplicity, symbolism, detailed description.
1. INTRODUCTION
Naturalism is a literary movement that began in France in the mid-19th-century in response to
philosophical and scientific ideas of the time. In America, naturalism flourished by the end of the
same century, as industrialization grew and Americans became aware of the importance of social and
economic forces. Apart from Dreiser, other American representatives of this prominent literary
movement are: Stephen Crane, Jack London, Frank Norris, O'Henry, etc. Great minds contributed to
the birth of naturalism, for example, Newton, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin‟s theory of evolution [1]
and above all Sigmund Freud, who demonstrated the degree by which the human behavior is affected
and limited by the struggle undergoing in his subconsciousness.
As a literary term naturalism describes a type of literature, which tries to apply scientific principles to
the study of human beings [2]. Unlike realism that focuses on literary techniques, naturalism adhered
to a completely philosophical attitude. Dreiser stands between the American realists and naturalists,
who tried to objectively describe the life, aiming at a presentation that was as close as possible to the
reality, and above all, seeking the attainment of truth. Dreiser devoted himself to documenting the
physical details of the time in which he lived. The detailed description in Dreiser‟s work stems from
his desire to seek the truth and knowledge. Rolf Lunden says that Dreiser would read „anyone who
moved him closer to the truth’ [3]. For this reason, his style is considered as unconventional and very
often labeled as clumsy. However, Dreiser‟s ability to describe objects as no one else is as S.O.
Matthiessen points out: „...a great asset for his work’ [4].
To achieve a fair judgment on Dreiser's style, it is necessary not to forget for a single moment that he
never departed from his profession as a journalist. Working as a reporter and editor in many
prestigious magazines and newspapers of the time, Dreiser directed his attention to exploring
philosophically conflicting ideas, without thinking about the colors or flowers of a fashionable style or
the astonishing combinations of words and new narrative techniques that we are used to find in great
writers. This is also explained by the impact that naturalism itself had on those that supported and
embraced it. In the analysis that Richard Poirier makes about naturalism in his book "A World
Elsewhere, The Place of Style in American Literature," he points that Dreiser chose to use a minimum
of rhetoric strategies, being satisfied only with the report of an existing world, which led to the
elaboration of a completely individual style [5].
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Gentjana Taraj
In composition, unlike contemporary writers, Dreiser fails to bring any innovations. Contrary to
Henry James, who tried to build a new world through „structures of the mind and… analogous
structure of language‟, Dreiser reported „a world already existent.‟[6] In his writings events develop
by following their chronological order. The story is narrated by the author, who knows everything that
happens and everything that his characters want or think. Through the long, precise and detailed
description of the events, the narrator manages to awaken a sense of tranquility, trust and confidence
to the reader who completely trust the authenticity of what they are told. Detailed descriptions,
portrayals of characters that intertwine often with the comments of the "omniscient" narrator are some
of the techniques that Dreiser uses in his story, which for the sake of truth can be considered obsolete
and out of fashion, at a time when writers like Henry James and Stephen Crane had been long
experimenting with new narrative techniques.
Although Dreiser's style is a complex issue, where a number of ethnic and aesthetic elements
intertwine, critics recognize Dreiser as a deep journalist, who, according to Alfred Kazin [7], saw
naturalism not as a literary idea but as a reaction to life, a direct response to the growth of industrial
cities that were transforming within the memory of a generation. The strong bond between Dreiser‟s
desire for realistic description and life experience will lead to the clear emergence of journalistic traits
in all his writings, through which his fiction, according to Saul Bellow [8] „captures things that
perhaps could not be taken in other ways- common expressions, flatnesses, forms of thought, the very
effect of popular literature itself.‟
In general, Dreiser aimed at representing „life as it is‟ and „the facts as they exist’ [9]. For that reason,
he made use of a simple language, based on colloquial dialects, at times distant from the English
syntactic norms, perhaps due to his German origin [10]. However, Dreiser was quite knowledgeable
about the technical aspects of literature. The keywords and symbols used by the writer associate with
themselves and create a universe that depicts with bright colors his characters‟ inner world. In order to
penetrate into the uneven state of his characters „mind, Dreiser uses the reported speech, called by
Donald Pizer as „free indirect discourse‟ which is an attempt on the writer‟s side to create an interior
monologue which „became common in avant-garde novels of the 1920s. [11].
2. THE TECHNIQUE OF PARALLEL EVENTS AND CHARACTERS
The novel "An American Tragedy", which is considered as one of the best works of Dreiser, is built
on the basis of the „parallel technique‟, which has led to the creation not only of parallel events, but
also of parallel characters: Clyde-Russell; Clyde- Gilbert; Roberta-Esta; Sondra-Hortense, the poor
family Griffiths- the rich family Griffiths etc. The events in the novel take place in two main cities:
Kansas City, the fictional town in which Dreiser prepares the necessary conditions that will affect and
change the personality and life of Clyde, and Lycurgus which is a meticulous repetition of the life in
Kansas City. Almost all the main characters we meet in the first town and the events in which Clyde
gets involved in this city, reflects themselves in Lycurgus.
We find the first sentence of the opening paragraph in the first and the last chapter of the novel of
stylistic interest: "Dusk- of a summer night." What attracts our attention is the juxtaposition of the
nouns "night" and "dusk" which paint the description with a dark, black color. These nouns, by
intensifying the meaning of the end of a day, contribute together to prepare the reader for the events
that will unfold later. In the center of the description is a family, who preaches the word of God in the
city streets, with no promising future ahead. Bystanders walk by them totally indifferent to what they
do with such devotion. Their attention is drawn by the presence of an immature boy, which they think
is inappropriate and not acceptable.
In the first book the little boy is Clyde, who feels embarrassed by what he is doing, while in the
second book it is Russell, the illegitimate son of Seta, who does not seem to have a better fate than his
uncle. Twenty years after Clyde execution it seems that nothing has changed. The life of poor
Griffiths family and the society in which they live have remained the same. The stream of fate in
which the members of this family must pass, goes through the same difficult path as before, since the
external factors and the environmental heritage where this family lives have not changed. However,
the author is optimistic and by the end of the novel gives readers the impression that Russell might
succeed where Clyde failed. Dreiser believes that he deserves a better fate. Even though Russell
seems to look like his uncle, according to Ms. Elvira is a copy of Clyde, he is the only one in the
family that does not enter: „the yellow, unprepossessing door‟
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‘An American Tragedy’: Analysis of Language and Writing Techniques
In the first book, Clyde‟s sister, Esta, falls victim of an amateur actor. He tempted her at the point she
got pregnant and then abandons her. As the results she returns in Kansas City pregnant and humiliated
to live at her parents‟ house. The same misfortune happens to Roberta, in the second part of the novel
in Lycurgus, where the main protagonist of this deception is Clyde himself. Being unable to resist his
inner instincts (the need for a partner and the desire for fun), he will submit himself completely in
their power.
After the accident in the lake, where Roberta dies, Clyde runs away without turning back his head,
hoping to avoid punishment and start a new life, just as he did in Lycurgus many years ago after the
death of a child in a car accident caused by his friends.
A parallelism is created between the characters in the novel and the real protagonist of the story in real
life. In order not to lose trace of reality Dreiser name his character Clyde Griffiths after the real
protagonist Chester Gillette. Dreiser uses the first letters of the name and surname of Chester Gillette
to baptize his character: Clyde-Chester and Gillette-Griffiths. Similarly, Dreiser chooses for Clyde the
same initials when he makes his registration in the countries where he and Roberta met: Carl Graham
and Clifford Golden. The overall function of such stylistic choice in the novel is clear, even though
Clyde gets a new identity; nevertheless, he remains the same species, which has been sentenced to
death by the “jungle” in which he lives.
Finally, through a frightening combination of bright and dark colors Dreiser has painted the
differences that exist between the different classes of the society in the America of the 20 th century.
Being a master of the narrative techniques of a reporter, Dreiser uses the power of a detailed
description to portray the difference between the rich and poor neighborhoods in the city as well as
the feelings of the character through the eyes of who this truthful reality is perceived. Long sentences,
numerous details characteristic of Dreiser's narrative style are used to uncover this huge contrast.
3. SYMBOLISM
In order to share his philosophical view about life and death, love and hate as well as the desire for
wealth and power, the writer exploits not only the emotive power of the language, but also the
symbols. Although few in number, the careful selection of symbols by Dreiser has empowered and
further intensified the aesthetic role that stylistic elements play in the construction of the meaning.
Dreiser makes his characters memorable by capturing the complexity of human nature while
exploring their struggle in the pursuit of happiness, power, wealth, sex, life and death. Among the
symbols used in the novel "An American Tragedy", we would highlight: winter, black, crows, the
lake, the hotel ‘Green Davidson', camera and Aladdin’s lamp, which will be explain more explicitly
in the following paragraphs.
The "Green Davidson" hotel symbolizes the American dream, which Clyde chases until the end of his
days without ever being able to reach it. It symbolizes most of the luxuries and the comforts of life,
the pleasure and entertainment, that his social position fails to provide. The associative link that the
color "green" creates with nature reminds us of the flowering garden of Eden, often implied in the
novel. This way "Green Davidson" becomes a symbol of the earthly paradise, which leads Clyde to
the gates of the celestial hell.
The camera that Clyde carries during the fatal journey symbolizes the life of the high society, part of
which he wants to be. It is impressive how Dreiser uses the same symbol to perform two functions
simultaneously. On the one hand, camera is the symbol of seduction and powerful attractions in life:
rich people used cameras to memorize the splendid moments in their life. On the other hand, it is this
camera that causes Clyde‟s destruction. Camera, the symbol of life which Clyde wants so much, is
used to hit Roberta on the boat as the result of which she was drowned and died. It would be exactly
this camera that would lead Clyde toward his painful and unavoidable end (the camera and Roberta‟s
hair on it become the indisputable proof of his guilt).
As a warning for the fatal accidents resulting in death and the fundamental turns in Clyde‟s life,
Dreiser has chosen the presence of crows in the scene “And from near it a flock of crows rose and
winged direct toward a distant wood lightly penciled against a foreground of snow.”
The winter is the time when the car accident in Kansa City happens, as well as the season when Clyde
is executed. Winter is the season when all misfortune in Clyde‟s life occur. The symbolism that
characterizes winter is obvious. Death is cold and colorless, and so is the social indifference. The
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Gentjana Taraj
feelings of Clyde, his dreams for the future and life become white, as white as Roberta‟s face in the
mortuary, then freeze and die with him.
‘An American Tragedy’
1-now in the winter wind…he saw Esta. Had the man she has run away with deserted her?
2-Kansas City in the gray of a winter morning..a little girl, the eleven-year-old daughter of a well-to.-do
Kansas City, knocked down and almost instantly killed- she had died an hour later.
3…Miss Alden‟s letters to you-indisputable proof that you know this girl that you courted and seduced her
last winter….
4-on rising he shoved his hands in the side pockets of his long coat and proceeded thought the winter‟s dark
and cold of the dreary town to see Clyde.
5-and then in the dark of this midwinter morning-the final moment-with the guards coming
Jewelry symbolizes the best attraction and the lifestyle of the society of the twentieth century which
considers it as the source of happiness and pleasure. Everything moves around the lucidity that the
upper strata of society radiates in the eyes of those who want to become part of it. Nothing could have
served better Dreiser‟s intention to portray a consumer society, whose main concerns are the material
goods than the image of the precious gems and the meanings implied within them. Thus, it is easy to
understand why every beautiful thing in the novel takes the shape and the brightness of a jewel.
‘An American Tragedy’
1-“treacherous depths of that magnetic purple pool.
2-change its form kaleidoscopically to a large, crystalline ball.
3-like a huge, black pearl.
4-Sondra as the central of crowning jewel to so much sudden and Aladdin-like splendor.
5-things that might interest people of means and comfort-motors, jewels, lingerie, leather food…
6-pearl gray spats…pearl gray hat..white satin and crystal.
7-he had killed the proprietary of a jewelry store in trying to rob it.
There is a striking contrast between the lucidity of the upper class and the dark color of the lake and
its black waters, which cannot symbolize anything good, but pain and death. Lake symbolizes the end
of life, the place where life is separated from death. Roberta was drowned in its black waters.
However, the lake does not symbolize only the place in the deep waters of which rest the body of
Roberta, but it is also the place where Clyde‟s dreams for a better life are downed as well. In order to
make this image richer and more vulnerable, Dreiser uses the black color and its nuances which
describe not only the nature but also the aggravated temper of the characters and their mental anguish.
Black represents the color of death, the end of life, dreams and every beautiful human feelings.
‘An American Tragedy’
1-the dark water closing over Roberta
2-facing the dark blue waters of the Big Bittern
3-the humped backs of the dark and distant Adirondacks..
4- Clyde was alone and forlorn, in this somber realm
5-a youth making his way through a dark, wood.. most funereally pine-encircled…
6-that island and this dark water around and beneath her
7-the body had lain beneath the waters of the lake
Aladdin’s lamp symbolizes the immediate and comfortable realization of Clyde‟s dreams: „He could
scarcely believe it. It seemed fantastic, Aladdinish, really‟. Clyde does not live in the real world.
Instead he has created his own world of dreams which cannot last long. He fails to look reality into
the eye and for that reason his awakening would be abrupt and painful. Nothing can save him from
devastation, nor even the magic performed with Aladdin‟s lamp.
4. COLORS IN DREISER’S STYLE
Another prominent stylistic element in the novel that is continuously used by Dreiser is the literal and
implied meanings represented by the colors: red and black. In addition to their ordinary semantic
meanings, these colors serve to dye all aspects of the spiritual world of the writer and his characters,
as well as to shape the philosophical conclusions drawn by the writer. The use of these two colors and
all the images created by them, shows that in addition to being a very good connoisseur of the inner
world of the human spirit, Dreiser is also a connoisseur of the symbolism that these colors represent.
The writer fills the reader's imagination with the image of death related to the black color and of love
and passion associated with the red color. The black and red show themselves in the novel in words
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‘An American Tragedy’: Analysis of Language and Writing Techniques
that represent darkness, despair, sadness, light, brightness or other phenomena related with these
colors such as flame, fire, lighten, deep waters, night, evening, etc.
The frequent use of the words that mark these two colors is great, but the maximum frequency is
reached by the black color along with all its derivatives, present in almost all of Dreiser's writings.
Black is the color of death, the end of life, the end of dreams and any beautiful human feelings and,
being so, it always accompanies the dark side of the human thoughts and behaviors. It reflects the
dismal reality of the twentieth century in all sizes and forms of its appearance. Every grave spiritual
and mental situation of the characters in the novel is painted with this color.
Red is the color of passion, lust and love that fires up the soul inflamed by the passion and sexual
desire. It means passion for art, for life, for femininity and beauty. The image projected in the novel
through the red color is tempting, with an unrestrained explosion, that makes visible and accessible
the disintegration of a psychological state, exalted by the presence of the female. Our characters draw
and design their dreams for power and wealth using this color.
In all the writings of Dreiser there is a war going on between light and shadow, ugliness and beauty,
desire and inability, black and red. Thus, these colors turn into a dominant stylistic device. At times
they are clear, distinct from each other, but sometimes they are mixed up until we find them
superimposed in their meeting point. Poverty and happiness often coexist. None of Dreiser's novels is
completely red or completely black.
5. CONCLUSIONS
For many years, the literary work of Dreiser was interpreted based on principles foreign to literature,
which led to conclusions that are far from truth and very often superficial. Despite the consciously or
unconsciously denigrating attitudes, the writer managed to get the attention and the appraisal of the
critics of the twentieth century, who searched deep into the structure and content of his works. This
way, they managed to attract the attention of readers, since Dreiser wrote about the human world, hate
and love, suffering, privacy, beauty, feminine, sexual desires, thirst for money and power, the
existence of God, life and its misery, exactly the way we live it every day. Therefore, the study of
Dreiser‟s work, partly or as a whole, should be done not only with the purpose of uncovering the
features and special characteristics of his style, but also with the goal of reaching a proper conclusion
about the intellectual strength and the personality of the writer.
The complexity of the writer‟s philosophical ideas about life, his way of thinking, his perception of
reality, as well as the issues related to the emotional world of the characters in the novel, imposes on
the writer the necessity to make use of particular words and syntactic structures which are suitable for
the displaying of moments of crisis and deep despair in the consciousness of the characters in the
novel. The complex syntactical structures, the rich contextual synonymy and the free indirect
discourse, have well served Dreiser‟s aim to describe with vivid colors the psychological processes
happening in the minds of his characters. Adding to this purpose the role that symbols, keywords,
figures of speech, functional lexicon, exclamations and other linguistics tools play in the overall
significance of the text, we can say that Dreiser's style is not that easy to be assessed.
In conclusion, we would like to evaluate Dreiser's style by quoting Paul Giles [12] according to
whom, like James Joyce‟s Ulysses (1922) or John Dos Passos‟s Manhattan Transfer, Dreiser‟s „An
American Tragedy‟ is concerned more with the investigation of the: „increasingly fractious
relationship between individual subjectivity and collective consciousness’ than with the representation
of a documentary truth. According to him, Dreiser‟s novel represents „a more stylized meditation
between alternative versions of truth and different categories of representations.‟
REFERENCES
[1] William, R., Keywords: A vocabulary of Culture and Society. London: Fontana, 1988, pp.127.
[2] Pizer, D., (ed.), Document of America Realism and Naturalism. Southern Illinois University
Press, 1988.
[3] Matthiessen, F.O., Theodore Dreiser. New York & Toronto: Sloane, 1951, pp.68.
[4] Lundin, R, The inevitable Equation: The Antithetic Pattern of Theodore Dreiser‟s Thought and
Art. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 1973, pp.35.
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[5] Poirier, R., A World Elsewhere: The Place of Style in American Literature. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1966.
[6] Kazin, A and Shapiro, C., the Stature of Theodore Dreiser: A Critical Survey of the Man and his
Work. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955.
[7] Bellow, S., Dreiser and the Triumph of Art. In Kazin, Alfred and Shapiro, Charles (ed.), The
Stature of Theodore Dreiser: A Critical Survey of the Man and His Work. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1955, pp. 146-148.
[8] Kazin, A and Shapiro, C., the Stature of Theodore Dreiser: A Critical Survey of the Man and his
Work. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955.
[9] Delbanco, A., Lyrical Dreiser. New York Review of Books, 23 November 1989, pp.32.
[10] Giles, P., Dreiser‟s style. In: Cassuto, Leonardo; Eby, Virginia (ed.), Cambridge Comapnion to
Theodore Dresiser. Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp.58.
[11] Poirier, R., A World Elsewhere: The Place of Style in American Literature. New York: Oxford
University Press, (1966). Cites in Giles, P., Dreiser‟s style. In: Cassuto, Leonardo and Eby,
Virginia (ed.), Cambridge Companion to Theodore Dresiser. Cambridge University Press, 2004,
pp.59.
[12] Giles, P., Dreiser‟s style. In: Cassuto, Leonardo; Eby, Virginia (ed.), Cambridge Comapnion to
Theodore Dresiser. Cambridge University Press, 2004, p.58, 59.
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Gentjana Taraj was born in Albania on January 10, 1975. She received her
bachelor‟s degree in English Literature and Translation Studies from the
University of Vlora in 2003, the PhD degree in Translation Studies from the
University of Tirana in 2010 and her MSc degree in Clinical Linguistics from
the University of Potsdam, Germany, in 2012.
Since 2003 she has joined the Department of Foreign Languages as a Lecturer
of Stylistics and Translation Studies. Her research interests lie mainly in the
fields of translation studies, stylistics, language acquisition and psychological approaches to text
analysis. By now, she has published 22 scientific papers in various international conferences and
journals and has translated two books, prose and poetry. She is presently writing a book on translation
quality assessment.
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